“Since 1945, the central idea of the European project was never again to leave a powerful and aggrieved Germany isolated at the centre of Europe. We are now dangerously close to that point.” So writes Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times.

Now, we wait for Germany’s Bundesverfassungsgericht (the Federal Constitutional Court) to deliver its verdict of life or death for the euro at 10 AM today in Karlsruhe. At issue is the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the €500bn — very permanent — bailout fund. In an extraordinary display of civic protest, some 37,000 Germans have filed cases against the ESM, but the elites, in the form of politicians and commentators, have nothing but contempt for those who would stand in the way of “The Project”. In this way, democracy loses.

UPDATE: The eurozone’s permanent bail-out fund has been ratified by the Bundesverfassungsgericht, but with conditions, the main one being that the German government must set a cap for the country’s ESM liability at €190bn.